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Hi reddit, I'm a guy in college (right out of highschool) I just spent the past hour or so talking to various people about a situation that just happened tonight at my dorm. I need help trying to figure out how to handle this, and generally resolve a damn scary issue.

(Please bear with the massive wall of text by the way: There's a lot for me to tell here.)

Earlier today, in what I realized was a case of really dumb judgement, I used blockposters.com to make and print out a two-by-one sized image of pedobear to post on our dorms' elevator as a prank during some off time from my classes. I arranged it so that when the elevator doors closed: Pedobear would be peeking from inside the elevator door. When the door opened, the picture would "hide" behind the elevator wall. Stupid, I know; but I was bored and had nothing to do at the moment, which I now think is a bad state for me to be in. I left it there for the afternoon after taking a video of it and posting it to funny, and didn't think much of it; thinking that someone would throw it away eventually. The intent there was to pull a harmless prank, but campus security (and my RD) seems to have taken it in a much, much more severe tone.

I was busy about an hour or so ago browsing the internet in general, when I heard a loud knocking at the main quad door. When I opened it, two campus officers asked for me, and lead me outside to the floor common room to "ask me a few questions". They let me know that my Residential Director (The staff-member who manages the entire building) was curious (nervous) as to what the image meant on the elevator. She had campus police investigate the image, and they found some page on the internet about what the pedobear image meant.

I have no idea what site they went on, but they asked me if I knew what it meant, to which I confirmed that I did. Wherever they looked said that it was a symbol of direct support for pedophiles, and they took that as a sign that I was a danger to the dorms and the RD's family in particular; even that I might be one myself! (Which, given the hostile manner that they acted towards me, may have been exactly what they were implying. Both officers denied this though.)

One officer continued by saying "Between you and me: I wouldn't go anywhere or try anything NEAR the RD or her children." and that "It's as offensive as posting swastikas all over the walls, it's the same thing." They both notified me that a memo had just been sent to all "staff" (very unclear as to security staff or all staff, which has me worried.) with my name, ID number, picture, and offense. They said that every officer was told to keep an eye on me, and that I was a possibly dangerous person who was to be monitored closely from now on.

Both officers said that this was a warning, and that I would be suspected of wrongdoing (and formally charged with a crime) if anything like that happened ever again, even if I was barely even remotely involved. (I would be considered a suspect then, even though they identified me via security cameras in the hallways and elevator...)

I ended up being left by them with that warning, and went outside to discuss this event with my parents on my phone. The RD's husband walked up at that point, and, visibly upset, asked what my actions were about. I explained the situation to him, and in short told him what the image meant, and that my actions were due to an on-the-spot, stupid idea that I would have redacted immediately if he or his wife had talked to me about it themselves and voiced their concerns. I tried to explain further, but he just walked away and ignored me.

I understand the fear the RD, husband, and police might have had of a dangerous situation unfolding if I did support that kind of behavior, but I don't; Not even remotely. The people that support child porn and that kind of shit are sick, twisted people, and I don't want to be perceptually thrown in that group by anybody, especially those with authority who could see me as a threat. I saw what I did as a lousy prank, but one that could be misinterpreted easily by those not in the know about stupid shit on the internet.

I'm contacting the RD about this incident tomorrow, but I'm not sure how to handle this otherwise... I'm not in any direct legal trouble, but the campus police will have it out for me, and the RD thinks I'm some creepy sick fuck. I have no prior history for this "kind" of behavior, pranks or pedophilia both; so I hope this gets dropped or resolved sooner rather than later. I hope that the apology email helps to move things along to resolution, but I doubt it will. I'm also contacting the head of security via email right now. I just spent a while writing this and crying a river... I just want this to be explained and moved on from...

Also note that I let the officers, AND the husband know that if the family had let me know about the issue, then I would have even issued a formal apology if I needed to; but the officers opposed that idea, and noted that "this is what we're paid for", and the husband just ignored me.

TLDR: I posted pedobear in a dorm elevator as a prank: and now my RD and the campus police think I'm a pedophile and are directly monitoring me like a known criminal. I think it's an overblown response to a stupid prank that I would take back if I could, but I understand their concerns.

What do I do now?

EDIT: Just woke up from a night of sleeplessness at 12:30, missed a 10:00 class because I couldn't get up and was too scared to go to class. I'm seeing that the three main consensuses after I went to sleep are:

Seek legal council

Try to defuse the issue, ignore and keep quiet

You're a fucking idiot.

I'm still deciding what to do about this, but I do agree with me being an idiot. It was a poorly aimed joke, and if I had posted a smiley or something else, maybe none of this would have happened. I need to get to my classes now, but if you guys have any other suggestions, fire away. I will be back later to see what else I can do, if any other ideas a bounced around by then.

UPDATE!

EDIT 2: Just got back to my dorm. My roommates informed me that the RD and various RAs held a floor meeting, talking about some guy who was extremely drunk down the hall from my dorm, and me. Specifically me. The RD, from what I've heard "Was up all night" and "Feared for [her] [and her family's] safety because of [me]". I don't have any other info on that yet, and I'm in the process of writing a thorough apology email, but this seems even more overblown than I thought. I spoke with the Director of security here, and he said that the "memos", or "informational" as the official term goes, were not passed out to anybody. From what I hear, the officers threatened me with an action that doesn't exist as a tool by the department; the info would only be stored and reviewed if it was a repeat issue.

I was also told that the situation would calm down if it wasn't really a problem, and the campus judicial board would have a meeting with me to discuss the incident, and that would be that.

Yeah, a slanderous RD isn't helping that at all.

I still want to hold off on legal options until I know exactly what the RD said in the floor meeting, but the words I heard sound like straight-up lying about me and painting my name as highly dangerous.

Until I know what's really going on: I'll be writing that letter.

EDIT 3: Letter done and submitted. I hope this goes better than I think it will.

EDIT 4: I may have forgotten to mention this: The floor meeting (usually including, and did include the upper floors of the dorm, I'm in the 3rd out 4 floors.) was seemingly conducted specifically so I wouldn't be there. I was not even informed about the meeting until I grabbed dinner from the cafeteria this evening and got back to the dorms, and even then the RAs made no effort to tell me; my roommates let me know about it when I told them about the D of S/P meeting. It was held earlier today while I had 2 classes to go through, with no time to go back to the dorms. No staff told me about this meeting on my way out either, and I saw one or two staff then.

UPDATE 9/11/11: I am currently taking one of the suggestions given, and with my parents consoling me, have contacted a couple of lawyers in my area. We're waiting from a response at this point, so we can move the case forward. I still haven't heard anything from my RD, either in person, or in response to my email that I sent 3 days ago. Thank you for your support askreddit, it is greatly appreciated. Without your responses (2160 comments in 3 days??? wow!), I wouldn't know WTF to do, and would have less motivation and courage to stand up for myself and take the legal option. Those that sent legal advice and meme-centric databases to help: You guys are awesome.

To those who think this was some elaborate troll: Learn some compassion guys! I was panicking over the initial administrative reaction to my prank, and reddit has helped me to overcome that stress. You few guys shouting "Troll! Troll!" didn't help that; but your more helpful compatriots have. Just letting you know: Think before you counter-troll.

Any other responses to this post at this point are welcome, but I think the majority of the help I needed here has been given. Again: thank you; and I'll hopefully be able to post the results of my situation here sooner rather than later.

Thank you reddit. If there was a way to upvote people in real life: I would.

Explain a million times over, "It's a prank gone wrong that only people who look at internet meme's all day would have understood. There are no dark undertones and whatever they think they understand about it is wrong." Talk about blowing it out of proportion!

I would suggest filing a charge against the sec. people. At least in Sweden spreading unsubstantiated allegations about someone, especially this kind, is a crime.

I say unsubstantiated because really, show me once case of pedophilia where the suspect has posted a large pedo-sticker before going about committing the crime.

Suggest to the RD he actually hires some people with experience and the know-how to actually do a proper threat evaluation instead of sending mass e-mails filled with unsubstantiated allegations that can lead him into all sorts of legal trouble.

While the laws in Sweden are likely to be very different from North America, over here I think you could still take them to court for defamation if they suggested you were a pedophile in emails sent out to people who affect your education, and thus your future.

Lawyer up, IMMEDIATELY. Brief your parents, full disclosure. It is going to cost you $, but you're now in the stage of "laying in the bed you've made for yourself", AKA damage control. This is best done with proper legal counsel to ensure you don't do any more bed-shitting which could further exacerbate the situation.

While you may wish the situation would simply evaporate, it won't. You need to start covering your ass, as the post above pointed out (re: records/changing schools, etc.). Good luck, bro (but with a good lawyer, you won't need it).

I disagree that the term "laying in the bed you've made for yourself" applies here. He didn't fuck shit up. He was doing something quite innocent for the lulz, and I for one thought it was hilarious, and literally LOL'ed as I read the OP.

Some overly sensitive fucktards are fucking his shit up, and now he's forced to lawyer up to deal with it.

I'm thinking that these security people may have jumped the gun on protocol. If I'm reading the OP correctly, it sounds like they asked the author if they knew what pedobear "means" and that they'd ALREADY notified staff of this supposed deviant, before verifying that this wasn't just a misunderstanding.

I wrote a research paper about the meme pedobear and presented it to a conference - a CRIMINAL JUSTICE conference - my findings show that it is harmless. PM me, I will be happy to speak with anyone, or to send along my paper, to those whom are having a hard time understanding what it means.

UPDATE: I will be happy to provide a copy of the original paper, although I'd like to wait until the revised version is finished. Either way, I'd be willing to do an AMA later this evening and provide the paper, or you all can just send me your email addresses and I can send it privately. I'm glad you are all taking such an interest!

It's called exercise your rights. Call a lawyer to speak to them to force them to redact their statements in formal writing to all parties previously notified. People will fucking eyeball you for as long as you live there, and you will never hear the end of it unless they are corrected, and forced to apologize for what they've called you.

It's known as defamation of character, and they're literally accusing you of being a pedophile by instructing others to treat you differently. You need to make sure this shit gets squashed, FAST.

UPDATE: What part of "SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LAWYER UP" didn't you get? This RA is going to blow this into the fucking moon, and you're going to take the shit for it. Did you not watch the 'don't talk to the police' video? You've now incriminated the fuck out of yourself. Everyone will treat you as a pedo from now on. Enjoy being exiled for the remainder of your stay there, and enjoy trying to get into another college when you've got 'possible pedophile' on your student records. Everyone is going to act like everything is just dandy until they've got all the paperwork together to send you away. Ain't nothing worse than some crazy woman who is hysterical and when you've given ANYONE ANY kind of reason to believe you're a pedophile and going to hurt her kids. You need to get this SQUASHED, and get her OUTED as being a FOOL. Now.

If they said they contacted all ‘staff‘ then I‘d assume that includes profs. These people just ruined any hope of a masters, phd, or any other post grad opportunity you might have had. I‘d be pissssssed. Lawyer up.

Can't upvote this enough. Slander is NEVER something that should be taken lightly, especially in a situation as absurd as this. If you really wanted to lawyer up you could sue for that sort of thing, but at the very least you ought to find a lawyer to help you issue a cease and desist or whatever the appropriate course of action would be (obviously not a lawyer). If nothing else you can try to contact your campus newspaper.

Edit: Since some seem to be confused, I'm aware of the difference between libel and slander. I just used "slander" to refer to the OP's incident because it seemed like the misinformation was being spread through spoken word or email, which I consider to be slander as libel tends to refer to published articles such as newspapers or magazines.

Lawyer may not be necessary. Schools sometimes have an ombudsman or other judicial branch that allows students to seek in-house counsel from people who work there. Get in touch with them to see if you can sort this out on campus. I don't think there's any lawyer who'd take this case for free (unless you're friends or relatives with one) as no actual damage has been proven, and thus no contingency fee can be expected if this goes to trial. Defamation damages are hard to prove in scenarios like this.

Same here! I thought he rasterbated a huge poster of it. Which would have lent itself to another set of problems..

"I just made this bear poster on rasterbator.."
"You masturbate to this pedophilic bear? You're sick!"
"No! It's another Internet thing..."
"I'm done trying to understand. Not that I was in the first place."

You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.

And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization.

And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement.

You should have just said it was a cute picture of a bear you found on the internet, and thought it would be funny to see it peeking out looking at you. NEVER try to explain internet memes/concepts to non-internet savvy people, they just won't understand what the hell you're talking about.

Yeah, he pretty much fucked himself over saying that he knew what it meant. The only way to get out of the situation at that point is to try to completely explain what the meme means in non-literal terms, because the literal explanation is exactly what the cops thought it was, a bear who abuses children.

I always saw it as a "watch out for pedos" more type of message. The cops saying it supports pedophilia is what really threw me. Even saying he knew, it's related to pedophilia but not endorsing it. I see that bear a couple times a week on the internet. All those people aren't showing "direct support for pedophiles".

Never try to explain the unexplainable, especially to authority figures on a power trip. Say what they want to hear, or whatever will get out of trouble. If you have to explain the concept of meme, you have already lost. "A funny bear picture a I found on Google" is so much easier.

I don't think anyone who actually is a pedophile/supports pedophilia uses pedobear as their symbol. It's just something people on the internet think is funny. Is it in bad taste, hell yeah lots of internet jokes are, but for someone to believe that it's an actually symbol pedophiles use to band together or mark their territory in some way I think is a little over the top, uninitiated to sense of humor of 4chan, reddit, and the like or not.

you didn't make the mistake, you were trying to have some fun, which with your intentions, you shouldn't feel all that bad about it. Sure it was kind of a dumb joke, but nonetheless you have no reason to feel so worked up about it. The RD was the one who isn't trying to understand what you were doing.

No, if I make a joke about exploiting small children, that would be humor based on sexual exploitation of small children. Putting up a picture of Pedobear... well, is much more complicated. On one level it's an innocent picture of a bear. On another level it is pedophile humor. On a higher level it's a satire of a society which lives in an irrational fear of predators (and not just the pedophile variety). On a level somewhere in between its a symbol of affiliation with internet culture (primarily 4chan, but in some sense pedobear is a symbol for the entirety of internet culture).

The essential problem here, is that pedobear is a meme, and not a symbol of anything specific (the way a swastika is a symbol for Naziism). Pedobear was created spontaneously from the hivemind of 4chan, and released into the internet population in general, where he has evolved, and continues to evolve, taking on more and more nuanced meanings, or perhaps, losing meaning, becoming simply a symbol for the internet itself.

Ultimately the interpretation has to come down to context. Even the swastika is a holy symbol in many eastern religions. The context here, clearly does not indicate pedophilia, but rather is intended to entertain other college students who understand the symbol.

That explanation became way longer than I had intended. This is an interesting topic.

The defamation of character thing people keep bringing up is a SERIOUS THING!

Consider this.

A teacher gets the memo or hears about it, you have the class with them. They look down upon you for the memo because it's telling them to be "on the look out" about you.

Get this shit lawyered. You have a VERY good case of character defamation here. Easily settled out of court for monetary compensation as well as a HUGE public apology by the RD, and the security/police guys for treating you as a pedo.

That way the school knows you aren't a pedo, you get some compensation for the damages it will most likely cause you (possibly having to retake classes due to teachers being assholes and not listening to any apology, which will cost money in books, tuition, time, etc.) both monetarily and to your reputation.

Reading this post, I tried to think how I would explain Pedobear to a layperson and could not articulate how it was a funny meme without invoking an image of child abuse, which is obviously not the point of the meme. Pedobear is actually so far removed from the actual idea of child abuse as to be entirely unoffensive to those familiar with it, and entirely offensive to some non-internet-savvy person who does a search on it.

It might not be hard to articulate, but the wikipedia article, which I can almost guarantee was the first thing the officers read, has no nuance at all. According to Wikipedia, it's a pedophilic bear, plain and simple.

Exactly.
I tried to point out to the officers that it's a parody of the concept of pedophilia at its most basic level: a cute, cuddly animal with malicious intent. I also tried to say that it wasn't the pedophilia that was "funny" (and not even in a "ha-ha" sort of way), it was that it would pop out and surprise people on the elevator.
One of the officers kept interrupting me at "funny", and push at "Well that's not funny, that's sick!" I chose that image because it looked like it was peeking from behind a wall, not because it implied pedophilia...

Agreed, I have no practical experience with legal systems and do my best to avoid them because it's just not worth the risk of them getting it wrong. All of my comments are made as my opinion of how things ought to be morally, not how they are. I would probably still try to find such a person as well though.

Unfortunately, I agree with this. The damage has already been done. Sounds like the officers and everyone else read a poorly done wikipedia article and then blew the pedo horn to the entire campus before anyone could get a word in edgewise. Maybe it was a lousy prank, maybe it wasn't. But it sounds like they could have done a better job listening and understanding your side of the story.

I totally get what you're saying, and I happen to find pedobear pretty funny, but I disagree that it can be entirely divorced from the reality of child sexual abuse. It wouldn't be funny if he was just bananabear and he really liked bananas. Now, looking big picture, I'm not totally comfortable about what this means for our generation, but it is what it is.

So would I. It's too bad that people took the prank so seriously. Honestly, there's nothing more frustrating than trying to explain internet culture to middle-aged adults. They just don't get it or they overreact.

I ran the student judiciary in a small private school's student life office. I can't stress enough how much universities do not want to get involved with lawyers. Usually just a letter from a lawyer can be enough of a counter move. Student life is so invested in student development and rules that they often become a chaotic good. Don't fall for the hype or the elevated faux seriousness.

To add to Fictional_Ending's point... I'm a lawyer and I cannot possibly explain to you how much I want to get involved with universities like OP's. I have no clue where OP lives, but I assume it's in the U.S. based on his language.

I can't solicit business, so I'm automatically disqualified from helping OP in any way and none of this should be considered legal advice and blah blah blah...

So on a personal note, this f'n infuriates me.

Colleges are supposed to provide forums for ADULTS to discuss mature subjects. There are so many important discussions regarding pedophilia (for example, should an 18 year old kid whose girlfriend was 16 years old be considered a predator because of statutory rape? Or, if he met a girl in a club that didn't allow anyone under the age of 18 to enter, and later that night had sex with her... even if he checked her ID (it doesn't matter in some states...)?

Most folks are too wrapped up in the emotional aspect of this problem. A college campus might be the only place where such discussions take place.

Even if those discussions result in confirmation of the status quo, they are important and productive.

DUH fact - the RA or DR or whatever should remove her kids from campus. Maybe then she would be less sensitive to adult ideas and satire. If it's a private college, maybe they could take a stroll down to the Christianity class and listen to people discuss cutting a baby in half. I could just go on and on with the Christianity rant, but I'll stop and try to re-focus...

THIS WAS DONE ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS. In the elementary school hallway, it would be creepy as fuck. On a college campus, you should be grown up enough to think of unpleasant things.

AND YOU'RE RIDICULOUSLY STUPID IF YOU THINK PEDOPHILES ANNOUNCE THEIR PRESENCE with 2 by 1 posters of bears. Duh. Why wouldn't they just post "Lost Puppy, please come to apartment 301 if you can help with the search" posters everywhere?

EVERYONE ON CAMPUS SHOULD BE PRESUMED TO BE MATURE ENOUGH TO HANDLE THIS SINGLE POSTER ON THE ELEVATOR DOOR. They're trusted to learn Machiavelli, but not Pedobear? For real? LIFE'S FUCKING UNPLEASANT SOMETIMES, get over it.

Or, if you're superior, learn where your reaction was not in proportion to the problem and at least move on from that point.

SUGGESTING THAT SOMEONE BROKE THE LAW OR THE MORAL NORM IS USUALLY AN EFFICIENT GROUND FOR LIABILITY. A public apology is the least you deserve.

at the very least, state that you're willing to take legal action to protect your name if the housing/security staff isn't willing to agree that you aren't a pedophile. It's actually rather sad, but many school housing departments place "not getting sued" above "safety." Safety is still as important as it is anywhere else, but not getting sued is even higher.

College sophomore who lived in the dorms last year here. I can confirm that no one will give a shit. Last year I got caught pirating a large amount of copyrighted material and the IT department sent a ton of emails to me, my internet privileges were revoked and they too sent out a warning email about me to the campus IT department.

Send a short, concise apology email and don't make a big deal about this. If they do indeed try to enforce some kind of punishment, you've got plenty of explanations to give them, and fighting it wouldn't be difficult.

I think he's more worried about his reputation at this point. There's a good chance something like this could be found by future employers and prevent him from getting a job. A link with pedophilia is much worse than with copyright infringement, and likely to be taken seriously (no matter how vague and unsupported that link is).

I got in trouble in college and got kicked out for a year and labeled a racist before I ever had the chance to tell my side.

If the school tries to take ANY disciplinary action against you make sure you figure out the procedures to defend yourself and appeal anything that doesn't go your way. Ultimately, the decision will probably be up to the Dean of Student Discipline, but if it's a state school, you should be able to appeal as high as the state board of education. Although that will probably take longer than college.

Stop understanding their concerns. They are crazy. ** Don't send her a freaking email.**

STOP APOLOGIZING It makes this kind of crazy person feel more in power, and they are crazy because they fear a lack of power, giving them power makes them feel good again and they exercise it as much as they can.

She is crazy, she won't take it the right way. It will only give her another excuse to think about you and the incident.

"Satirical character". That's the concept you need to hammer home whenever you need to explain this thing to anyone, be it your lawyer, confused onlookers, whatever. The Pedobear character is pure satire, and like most satire it deals with a touchy subject with humor. Keep emphasizing that word over and over. Insist that any research they did that indicated that Pedobear is an actual signal among actual pedophiles is misinformed.

I definitely would say to lawyer up, both to defend yourself and to potentially counter with slander/libel suit threats. In the process, be prepared to acknowledge that some people might find your attempt at humor to be in bad taste - it certainly wouldn't be the first time satire offended someone - but tasteless humor is not the same thing as sexual predation and you are not about to stand by and allow yourself to be publicly tarred and feathered with that kind of allegation.

but they asked me if I knew what it meant, *to which I confirmed that I did. *

There's your problem.

Doesn't matter if it's campus police, real police or the FBI. You never admit that you did anything. Ever. If you had just said "no, I just thought it was funny" then a lot of this could have been avoided and you wouldn't be accused of being a pedophile.

Get a lawyer. What they are doing will probably effect your school and social life negatively, and it's completely slanderous. Honestly, you could probably get the police involved charged for harassment/abuse of power if you wanted to, but it's usually too much effort to be worth it for anyone who isn't a millionaire.

If I had a kickass lawyer friend or lots of money, I would scream slander (or libel?) about the memo they sent out, depending on the description of your "offense". They very well could have just told the entire university staff you're a pedophile, and that shit's not cool.

Thanks for the libel tip, I'm trying to get a meeting set up with the head of security ASAP to figure this out, and (as of now) what that internal memo reads. Should I request a copy of the actual memo?

Why did you not explain to them IMMEDIATELY that it is NOT a national emblem of support for pedophilia (or whatever nonsense they believe) and instead a harmless are retarded (albeit understandably offensive to some) internet joke?

First off, DO NOT WRITE THE RD ANYTHING! Watch the "don't talk to the police" video below and you'll understand why. You're basically giving them a written confession of how you're a sick, kid loving, pedophile. This might help if you knew it wasn't going further, but since they basically threatened you that they would treat you like a suspected kid murderer from here on out so you do not have any idea.

From here I can see you doing one of two things:

1.) Tighten the fuck up and forget about it. Go on with your life, be an appropriate gentleman, and stop the stupid shit. If it's brought up brush it off like it nothing and go on. If no harm was intended and you act like it, it should be gtg.

2.) Lawyer up and look into fighting back. They basically told you that you are now considered a child molester and will be treated as such. Considering your action this could very well be harassment. Basically get the law on your side to tell these people to fuck off and leave you alone.

Either way you might want to talk to a lawyer just to see what he has to say. He will have a lot better idea about local/state/etc. laws that could either be for or against you and can advise you accordingly.

Either way stop with the stupid shit. That's frat house funny, not dorm funny.

In japan, pedobear is a bear that warns kids about pedophiles, and people got in the habit of replying with a picture of pedobear every time they came across any sort of picture that was even slightly unsavoury of children. What ended up happening was people outside of japan misconstrued the meaning of this bear and thought he WAS a pedophile. It's like if Smokey the bear was considered a pyro in Japan.

I totally made that whole story up, but it's a way to get people to understand that it's a big inside joke. The story was something I made up, on the spot, when my Dad asked me what my halloween costume was 2 years ago.

Don't know if anybody said this, but isn't what the security guys did a violation of FERPA?

Also, don't let this ruin college for you - if they decide to go on a witch hunt against you, DON'T let the bully you. I had something similar-ish happen to me in college, and have since found out that TONS of other people have been bullied too. My biggest regret is that I didn't fight them and make a scene. You're in the right here - not them. You have nothing to apologize for, because you did nothing wrong.

If you can afford it a lawyer might be good, if only to clear your name. The bullshit about posting your photo around and shit isn't cool, and it's really not something you want to follow you. Whatever pedo bear symbolizes, you put a picture of a bear from the internet on the elevator. There is no correlation between that and pedophilic behavior. Me, personally, I would go ahead and get a lawyer if I could, and have him contact everyone involved about possible legal action concerning defamation etc. This is some serious shit. People's live's have been ruined over accusations of this nature.

You may know me, I'm the guy who posted a Pedobear picture in this dorm elevator a while ago.

For those who don't know what Pedobear is, it's a cartoon bear who is supposedly a pedophile. It's an internet running gag. A joke.

People who think Pedobear signifies some sort of symbol for approving pedophiles or child abuse are humorless and uninformed, and would also think that anyone quoting bits of the 'Ahmed The Dead Terrorist' ventriloquist act is a direct supporter of Al Qaeda, or that watching Charlie Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator' means you support Nazis and/or are a Nazi yourself.

People who believe that should grow up and try to solve real problems, but since solving imaginary ones seems so much easier they are now monitoring me like I am a criminal. They don't even bother to listen to my explanation why they're wrong, I'm now branded to them as one.

The RD is permitted (I don't know how or why) to house her family on the 4th floor. As to question #2: I have no idea. If I was some sort of pedo in a college dorm, would I basically wave a flag around and go: "HEY GUYS! LOOK AT ME! I'M A SICK BASTARD, PLEASE ARREST ME!"

Went through the same retarded thing. Made a "following children" page on facebook, liked it and shopped some fairly innocent pedobear images. Next morning family members are FAXING.....FAAAAAAAAAAAXING copies of my damn wall to each other and accusing me of pedophilia. My parents calling me an abomination and general batshit stupidity all round with some relatives even threatening to call the police over a...........liked page...........

In the end I showed them knowyourmeme's explanation on pedobear and told every family member to politely go fuck themselves.

You weren't stupid and neither was your prank. You had a laugh and someone else is too busy thinking about how much people must want to fuck their children to actually realize that. I know people who were molested as kids who handle this shit better than most mothers of today.

I think you have a great sense of humor. Don't put yourself down as an idiot, the dozens of kids you're going to hear about getting alcohol poisoning and doing shrooms are way stupider than you.
You just had the misfortune of running into close minded assholes with no sense of humor. The only thing you did wrong was admit to the prank. Rule no.1 of college pranks is always get away with it.

Seems America has a lot of this recently from police shooting their weapons at dogs to utter violations of peoples rights, I know for a fact I am avoiding the United States of intolerance and stupidity if you ask me.

As an RA, I feel like I can give you some insight into what the RD did right and wrong, well against their job.

Right: they saw something that was strange, and investigated it.
Wrong: they only investigated to the extent to think that it was harmful. They did not investigate, as they should have, to understand what it was about. Talking to you about it first before doing anything would have solved this issue.
Right: they called you to talk about it.
Wrong: They made wide assumptions about the situation and enforced policy without the facts.

Most housing staffs will tell you that investigation is the first thing that any of us do to encounter what could be difficult situations. This includes finding out the intention behind a certain act, and most of the time the staff will be generous if it was not intended to be harmful or is otherwise rather innocent.

What I suggest you do: I don't really think that getting a lawyer (immediately) is going to solve anything, [EDIT:] but at the very least show them, by saying very clearly, that you're willing to sue. If they decide to press charges and demand things from you, then certainly.
First write to the RD as mentioned otherwise in this post. At the same time schedule an appointment with her to discuss further details and allow yourself to explain further if needed.
Second, review housing policy surrounding vandalism, appropriate action for such an instance, and generally just read up on most of the contract/policies.
Third, now do this if and only if the RD is still actively seeking a dozen different ways to charge you, write to the Director of ResLife/Housing, whichever has more direct control over the staff. Ask your RA which one would be best, as different schools operate differently in their administration. Explain clearly the situation, how you felt about it, and make sure to be professional about it. Never ever blame the RD, police, or other staff, but simply state what happened without saying things like "The RD assumed... the police didn't listen... etc.". This person is essentially the RD's boss, and their effectiveness as an RD/their employment (which imho should be what happens unless she can come to the realization that it was a simple/lame prank) is judged by this person.

You may have to go through a judicial process, which is likely a good thing. Most Dept.s of Housing have this process for exactly these sorts of events. If not, find out how you can work through it. If there is no on-campus or in-school judicial board to dissolve the issue, then you might have to seek a lawyer.

Any more questions feel free to ask.

TL;DR:I must stress these things: Talk to the staff, be professional, read up on policies, and be assertive that you are NOT a pedophile.

You're good with the right/wrong, but dissuading from talking with a lawyer is probably bad advice. Sending an email to anyone suggesting he was a suspect or a pedophile was a ridiculously wrong thing to do. You're right that it won't "solve" anything, but only because it's impossible to truly "solve" a false pedophilia allegation. That's exactly why he needs a lawyer.

And, for what it's worth to the OP: I was an RA five years ago, and six of my closest friends now were RAs and hall directors. People who stay in residence life for more than a couple years tend to be crazy or have serious issues. The ones who had kids while doing this job were probably the worst -- they tended to be very religious and saw themselves as missionaries.

I figured something like this would happen/has happened somewhere someday. I'll never get these people who think it's cool to wear pedobear shirts or use pedobear as their avatar on a forum. Obviously, these aren't pedophiles announcing their presence in public, so what's the point? Is it just to say "lol I'm aware of this one internet meme. Look a how in touch I am with internet culture lol."?

I'm not trying to be a dick here, I honestly want to know: why do people associate themselves with pedobear? If someone could explain this to me, I'd be happy.